Welcome to the world, Ava Noelle!

I haven't touched this blog in 7 whole months!!! I got annoyed with my pictures disappearing, and just thought about stopping the blog altogether. However, this is the only way I keep track of my kids' milestones, and since I did so well with Audrey's month-ivesary series, I have to do the same with Ava. As the younger child, I always said I wasn't going to do more for the older child than the younger, but now I see how it just happens. Some days, we have our hands FULL! Yesterday, I got about 30 minutes of down time the entire day. I was absolutely EXHAUSTED by bedtime. I digress.

Today, the day that Ava turns 1 month old, I decided that I should go back to the day that she was actually born.

On March 8th, I had my regular 39 week appointment with my OB. When she did the cervical check, she found that I was 3 1/2 cm dilated, baby was REALLY low (which I already knew thanks to my trips to the bathroom every 30 min!), and my water bag was bulging to the point she was surprised that it hadn't broken yet. She told me if I had been 4 cm dilated, she could have admitted me to the hospital in active labor, and asked if I was having a lot of contractions. I told her I had them all the time, but they were only 15-20 min apart, lasted about 30 seconds, and pretty much painless. She asked if I could come back the next day because she was certain I would be dilated to at least a 4, and that we would have a baby that day! Michel and I called our family, and Michel's dad came and stayed with Audrey while we went to the hospital. We were also told to go ahead and bring our bags as my OB was really certain that March 9th would be baby day! So we got to the OB's office, and found out I was 5 cm dilated!! Also, when my OB checked me, my water bag sprung a small leak, so now it was definitely baby day! I was 39 weeks and 4 days along, and soooo uncomfortable, so I was so happy to hear that we were going to meet Ava that day!

My OB's office is at Medical City, so we just had to drive around to a different building, and went up to L&D to get checked in. We arrived there around 1:30, and I was asked if I wanted an epidural. I declined it at the time because, again, my contractions were virtually painless. My OB was going to come over soon and break my water, and my nurse warned me that would likely cause the intensity of the contractions to pick up, and an anesthesiologist may not be available right away. I still declined. Around 3:00, my OB came over and broke my water. Um, the nurse wasn't lying. My contractions sped up from every 15-20 minutes and virtually painless to every 2-3 minutes and they HURT! Needless to say, I asked for the epidural not long after. Luckily, I got it within 20-30 minutes of when I requested it, and life was good again. Michel and i got to enjoy some calm before the storm by hanging out, watching TV, and updating Facebook lol. Around 6pm, I was fully dilated, and ready to push! Because I only pushed for about 20 minutes with Audrey, the nurse had me wait to push (no practice pushes) until my OB got there. Good thing she decided to have me wait because I only pushed 3 times and Ava was out!!

March 9, 2016 at 6:21pm our sweet Ava Noelle Zoutendam was born weighing 7lbs 2oz and measuring 20" long - the EXACT measurements of Audrey when she was born! She was healthy and absolutely perfect in every way!